Letter to the Cambridge City Council Re: FY26 City budget - March 2025
Dear Members of the Cambridge City Council,
We, the members of The Black Response in Cambridge, MA, are deeply concerned about the City’s budgetary priorities during this fiscal cycle. We believe that the City of Cambridge is contemplating fiscal restraint and limiting the expansion of crucial social services, even as it expands in other areas. This contradiction is especially alarming in light of recent policy orders that prioritize police surveillance technology over community-driven support services. Discussions about increasing police funding while curbing social investments are not aligned with the needs or values of the people of Cambridge.
In February 2025, the Cambridge City Council approved CPD’s requests to acquire Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems and the GrayKey device—both of which raise significant concerns regarding civil liberties, data privacy, and racial profiling. Despite public concerns, CPD has proceeded with their procurement of these technologies, which could result in increased surveillance and data sharing with federal agencies, including ICE. Furthermore, discussions around acquiring drones for police surveillance, an absurd waste of city resources, have only been deferred—not dismissed—raising further fears of an expanding surveillance state in our City.
Additionally, Cambridge has continued its reliance on ShotSpotter, an surveillance system masquerading as a gunshot detection system that is not only ineffective but actively harmful. ShotSpotter is operated by a third-party for-profit corporation and funded through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It places microphones throughout the City, effectively conducting warrantless audio surveillance on communities. This system has been widely discredited for producing false alerts and disproportionately affecting Black and Brown neighborhoods. Furthermore, the Cambridge city government has no way of knowing if SoundThinking, the company behind ShotSpotter, is sharing audio data with DHS or other federal agencies (again, like ICE).
As the Trump administration is facilitating the disappearance of marginalized populations (#JusticeforRumeysa), the continued investment in such technologies contradicts Cambridge’s claim of being a sanctuary city for immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and all marginalized people. It is cognitive dissonance to assert a commitment to safety for vulnerable communities while simultaneously expanding a surveillance infrastructure that feeds data into oppressive and violent federal systems. Our sanctuary policies should extend beyond symbolic gestures; they must be reflected in our budget decisions.
In this same spirit, we must address the potential closure of the Spaulding shelter—a critical resource for our most vulnerable residents. The City Council unanimously declared Cambridge a sanctuary city for all vulnerable people, a promise that rings hollow if we shut down a shelter that provides real safety and stability. Spaulding offers dignity, privacy, guaranteed beds, three meals a day, access to medical care, and safe storage—services that go far beyond the basic provisions of other shelters. To claim the shelter is too costly is to ignore the comprehensive care it provides. Meanwhile, the City has recently allocated $600,000 to police weapons, and continues to fund expensive surveillance technologies. This is not a question of resources—Cambridge has a billion-dollar budget, $200 million in Free Cash, and some of the lowest property taxes in the state. This is a moral decision. Closing Spaulding in this context would be a deep betrayal of the values we claim to uphold.
Furthermore, it is rumored that the Cambridge Police Department has requested funding to expand their co-response initiative, which is partly funded by the federal government. The co-response model is an unwanted and unnecessary expansion of police presence. Despite previous City Council policy orders, passed in 2021 and 2022, to create and fund an unarmed civil response program, the police are now calling to expand a police-led co-response model. This is an unacceptable departure from the will of the people. The residents of Cambridge have not requested a co-response model, and our City already has multiple alternatives to armed police intervention:
Cambridge HEART (Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team)
City of Cambridge Community Safety Department’s CARE program
Massachusetts Behavioral Health Roadmap’s funded response programs (Behavioral Health Helpline (BHHL), a network of Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHCs) and 24/7 mobile crisis services to improve access to mental health and substance use treatment)
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, a national initiative to de-escalate mental health crises without police involvement
The resources and programs we fought for have already been created and need to be funded. This is the will of the people. Yet, instead of reinforcing and expanding these unarmed responses, the City is redirecting funds back into police-led crisis intervention. This is after the Cambridge police murdered Arif Sayed Faisal and took no responsibility for this action. Even after spending tax dollars on consultants, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), there were no changes made to the Cambridge Police Department protocols. This undermines the community’s clear demand for non-police alternatives and contradicts the City’s previously stated commitment to reimagining public safety.
The City Manager has indicated concerns about rising costs and potential federal budget cuts that could impact essential services such as education, housing, healthcare, and community development. Yet, instead of prioritizing these areas, Cambridge is doubling down on police funding and surveillance expansion. This is an unacceptable misallocation of resources.
We urge the Cambridge City Council to:
Reject any increases to the Cambridge Police Department’s budget.
Divest from surveillance technologies such as ALPR, GrayKey, ShotSpotter, and police drones.
Fully invest in and strengthen unarmed crisis response programs instead of expanding CPD’s co-response model.
Honor Cambridge’s sanctuary city status by ensuring our policies do not facilitate data-sharing with ICE or DHS.
Allocate funds toward social programs that directly address housing insecurity, healthcare, mental health support, and violence prevention. This includes keeping the Spaulding shelter open and funding it with City auxiliary funding.
Commit to erecting a public monument to commemorate this era of Mass Incarceration and disappearances.
The people of Cambridge have been clear: true safety comes from investment in community, not an expansion of police presence and surveillance. The Black Response and our allies will continue to hold our City’s leadership accountable to the commitments it has made to racial and social justice. We urge you to align your budgetary decisions with the values of the people you serve.
Sincerely,
The Black Response - Cambridge, MA